January TBR
Hello readers and welcome officially to 2021!
The best part of no New Year's Eve parties - I'm starting the year off without a hangover. And, because I am very on top of it and a real adult (this is the year I turn 27 - I am horrified) I am also getting my January TBR up in record time!
Anyway. Most of the titles on this list are now officially 'backlist' - i.e. they came out in 2020. Even though that was yesterday, these are backlist titles. I'm going to dive into a couple new romance novels I'm quite excited about; continue my attempt at broadening my reading in sci-fi and fantasy; and I'm finally getting around to some FictionMatters recommendations that I was just waiting to release in paperback to pick up. There's also a couple buddy reads on here that I'm attempting through the FictionMatters book club group - the January book club pick and a buddy read of Possession, the 1995 Man Booker winner that I've been meaning to read for months and months and then just never pick up. The buddy read is meant to be split through two months, so this will be the first time I ever read a book over such a long stretch of time that I will have others in rotation at the same time - I'm not really one of those readers that has multiple books on the go, so we'll see how I react to that and if it's something I carry forward in the rest of the year.
I feel like this list has a pretty strong mix of the genres I usually enjoy, as well as some venture ones - the FictionMatters book club pick is dystopian, magical literary realism, which is a mix I did not know existed and I'm a bit nervous about; there's a historical analysis nonfiction; some alternative historical fiction; some contemporary fiction (Such A Fun Age, Leave the World Behind) and some literary fiction as well (eventually I will write a blog post about how I differentiate the two); a bonkers adventure novel; social critique; and, of course, quite a few romances. I'm reading more contemporary romance this month than I usually do, but the Martha Waters book (To Have and to Hoax) is the first book in what is supposedly to be a series, and we all know how I feel about historical romance series. Give me a heroine who is at risk for ruination and a reformed rake here to make her orgasm, and I will be there for it the whole goddamn way. Add in some flirtatious banter and my soul is yours, Martha Waters!
Some other posts to look forward to in the next week: I'm going to do a recap of my 2020 reading goals and set some 2021 ones, and I will also publish my Top 10 of 2020 list (I know that everyone is simply dying to know what's on that). I'm also going to try and review more books this year, rather than just doing lists and wrap-ups, but I will go into more detail with that on my 2021 reading goals post.
Without further ado, here are the books I want to read this month - and to try and keep myself accountable on my quest to review more books, I am also highlighting the reads I'd like to post full reviews of this year. You are welcome to @ me if I laze out of doing these over the next 31 days:
The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
One Italian Summer, by Lori Nelson Spielman
Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch
The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford
Ten Rules for Faking It, by Sophie Sullivan
Such A Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
Crime and Poetry, by Amanda Flower
Les désorientés, by Amin Maalouf
La Formule de Dieu, by J.R. dos Santos
The Conspiracy Trial of the Chicago Seven, by John Schulz
To Have and to Hoax, by Martha Waters
Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke
On Such A Full Sea, by Chang-Rae Lee
First quarter of Possession, by A.S. Byatt
Please let me know if any of these strike your fancy or if you want to buddy read any of them! Buddy reads are something I am keen to explore more of this year as a way of trying to expand my social life in view of what is likely to be another onerous lockdown come my return to Britain (should I be allowed back across the border with a pressure cooker in my suitcase. Still to be determined - do stay tuned).
Thank you for sticking with this blog in its first year - I hope you enjoyed the recommendations you may have gotten from it, and I look forward to sending more books your way in the year to come!
Happy reading,
Amélie xx
